One day, when the king was sitting on the throne, a traveler came to him from distant countries, drew a stripe around the throne and silently stood at a distance.
The king did not understand anything about all this. He called his entourage, but even they could not understand anything. It was a great shame for the king that in his entire country there was no person who could figure out what this meant. He issued a strict order that he would execute all the wise men of his country if they did not solve this riddle.
The king's entourage, looking for a sage who could solve this mystery, accidentally came across one house. Entering there, they saw a cradle in the room, which was rocking, although there was no one around. We entered another room, there also stood a cradle and rocked, although there were no people here either. We went up to the roof of the house - there they found washed wheat spread out, and next to it a reed stuck in the ground swayed and scattered the birds so that they would not peck the wheat, although there was no wind.
The king's people were amazed. Going down to the lower room, they saw a weaver at work on the loom. This weaver tied one thread to the warp, another to the weft, and a third to the heddle. As he weaved, the threads moved and shook both the cradles and the reeds on the roof.
- That’s how a master is, no worse than a sage!
The king's people told the weaver about how one wanderer drew a strip around the king's throne and no one could find out what he wanted to say by this, and then they invited him to go and solve this mystery.
“If you solve it, you will receive big gifts from the king,” they added.
The weaver became thoughtful, took two grandmothers and a chicken and went with them to the king. Arriving at the palace and seeing the wanderer, the weaver threw two grandmas in front of him. Seeing this, the wanderer took a handful of millet from his pocket and sprinkled it on the ground. The weaver threw the chicken, which quickly began to peck the millet. After this, the wanderer immediately put on his sandals and left.
- What did the wanderer want to say? - they asked the weaver. “This wanderer wanted to tell our king that his king was going to come and besiege our land, and he wanted to find out whether our king was thinking of submitting to him or would come out to meet him with an army. I threw dibs in front of him - they say, you are children in front of us, it’s better to play dibs at home and stop thinking about the war with us. The wanderer sprinkled millet to show that the army was outnumbered. I, having released the chicken, answered him that our one warrior would defeat their entire army.
The king honored the weaver with great honors, richly rewarded him and wanted to appoint him vizier, but the weaver did not agree. He took very little for his service and said to the king at parting:
“I would like, king, only one thing: for you to know that among your servants you can find people smarter than your viziers, and that from now on you consider weavers and bast-basket makers as people.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru